The present invention relates to a (remote) controllable scent sample dispenser, the use of the remote controllable scent sample dispenser for supplying a scent sample with a predefined dosing rate to an animal's nose, a method for determining the minimum scent concentration of a scent sample an animal or an scent detection means can detect, and a method of positive-reinforced scent training an animal for reliable recognition of scent sample. In particular, the present invention relates to an animal training or testing system (ATS) for detecting a scent sample with a high reliability even if the scent samples have a very low scent concentration. Thus, the present invention generally relates to the field of training an animal, such as a dog, regarding scent detection and training.
In the field of scent detection by an animal, e.g. a dog, the scent detection training of the animal is usually based on hundred years old principles, mainly with the connection between a toy and a scent. Usually, a natural behavior of an animal is to search for his toy. If the scent sample is hidden in or with the toy, the searching behavior of the animal can be conditioned in that the animal could make his connection to a specific scent in order to search the scent.
In the field of scent detection by means of trained animals, the procedures of training the animals are directed to the goal to increase the scent detection reliability of a trained animal and to decrease the minimum scent concentration of a scent sample an animal can detect.